Election Officials Mail More than 30,000 Absentee Ballots

Alaska election officials mailed more than 30,000 absentee ballots to voters for next week’s election.

This surpasses the roughly 26,460 absentee ballots mailed for the 2006 general election.

The state Division of Elections also reports faxing about 860 ballots. The deadline to receive application by fax is Monday.

Absentee ballots could play a major role in the hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

They did in the August GOP primary, which was too close to call on election night. After the first big batch of absentee ballots was counted a week later, Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceded the race to Joe Miller.